Article excerpt

A national watchdog group is asking the Pentagon to deploy
military minders to oversee a group of contractors hired to guard
the US Embassy in Kabul. The group reports that guards there created
a "Lord of the Flies"-like environment that threatened embassy
security.

The Project on Government Oversight investigated reports from
employees of a private security firm hired by the US State
Department that guards had participated in inappropriate behavior at
parties near the embassy and had put American security, if not the
mission in Afghanistan, in jeopardy.

"Lewd and deviant behavior" of about 30 guards and supervisors
included drinking at parties in which there was nudity, brawls
between guards, and at least in one instance the presence of women,
allegedly prostitutes, at a nearby camp that was used to house the
guards, according to a letter sent by POGO to Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton Tuesday.

There were other alleged incidents in which guards were shown in
videos and pictures in a drunken and semi-nude state alongside
Afghan nationals, who would presumably consider such behavior in a
Muslim country offensive.

"POGO believes that the management of the contract to protect the
US embassy Kabul is grossly deficient, posing a significant threat
to the security of the embassy and its personnel - and thereby to
the diplomatic mission of Afghanistan," Danielle Brian, executive
director of POGO, wrote in the letter to Ms. Clinton.

The guards, many of whom do not speak English, are employees of
AmorGroup, a British firm that is a subsidiary of Wackenhut
Services, Inc. A spokesperson at Miami-based Wackenhut said the
company was preparing a response to the allegations.

Noting that State Department officials either knew or should have
known about the environment in which the contractors were allowed to
operate, POGO called for Pentagon oversight of the contract.

According to news reports Wednesday, the State Department
inspector general is sending a team to conduct a "full inspection"
of operations at the US Embassy in Kabul. …

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